Buffy The Vampire Slayer may have gone off the air over a decade ago, (yes it’s really been that long) but it still holds a special place in our slayer-loving hearts. Which is why this new fan theory by reddit user flagnut1 rocked our world.
As you’ll remember in the series 7 finale, Willow casts a spell to awaken the “potential slayer” in all of the maybe slayers around the world to help Buffy and the Scooby Gang to fight the First Evil. Usually, a new slayer can only be called when the old slayer dies, so their is roughly one slayer per generation. We know this isn’t the case with Buffy, as she died briefly at the end of season 1 before Xander used CPR to bring her back to life. This awoke the next slayer in line Kendra, which is considered a unique event in history.
However, as flagnut1 points out Willow’s spell leaves a bit of a plothole. If she had the skill to rouse all the would-be slayers out there, why didn’t she do it much earlier? Think how much simpler everything would have been! Buffy could have help against all the former big bads from season 4 onwards, when Willow discovered the true strength of her wicca powers, including Adam, Glory and the Trio.
Flagnut’s reasoning is that the spell to call all the potential slayers was much risker than Willow let on. In theory, you could have unlimited slayers if you killed each one temporarily, so to unleash their inner power Willow temporarily murdered them all with magic before just as quickly restoring them, setting off a chain reaction that created multiple slayers at once.
Seems a bit unlikely, and is definitely something kind-hearted Buffy wouldn’t agree to, but as flagnut reminds us formerly sweet-natured Willow has a tendency to get drunk on power and is prone to violent and impulsive behaviour. She could have done this without telling the gang, which is in line with her character in the later seasons.
What do you think? A valid theory or a load of hooey?
